Letter 353: I have read your speech, and have immensely admired it. O muses; O learning; O Athens; what do you not give to those who love you! What fruits do not they gather who spend even a short time with you!
I've read your speech and admired it enormously. O Muses! O learning! O Athens — what gifts you give to those who love you! What harvests are reaped by those who spend even a little time in your company! Oh, to drink from that abundantly flowing fountain of yours! What remarkable men it produces in all who taste it! In your speech I seemed to see the man himself [likely a comic character], together with his chattering little wife. Libanius alone has written a living story — one that breathes — and in doing so has given his words the gift of life itself.
Human translation - New Advent (NPNF / ANF series)
Latin / Greek Original
[Πρός: Βασίλειος Λιβανίῳ]
Ἀνέγνων τὸν λόγον, σοφώτατε, καὶ ὑπερτεθαύμακα. ὦ Μοῦσαι, καὶ λόγοι, καὶ Ἀθῆναι, οἷα τοῖς ἐρασταῖς δωρεῖσθεϲ οἵους κομίζονται τοὺς καρπούς, οἱ βραχύν τινα χρόνον ὑμῖν συγγινόμενοιϲ ὦ πηγῆς πολυχεύμονος, οἵους ἔδειξε τοὺς ἀρυομένουσϲ αὐτὸν γὰρ ἐδόκουν ὁρᾷν ἐν τῷ λόγῳ λάλῳ συνόντα γυναίῳ. ἔμπνουν γὰρ λόγον ἐπὶ χθονὸς Λιβάνιος ἔγραψεν, ὃς μόνος τοῖς λόγοις ψυχὴν ἐχαρίσατο.
Revision history
- 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import
Initial corpus import from New Advent / NPNF.
Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-greekLit/blob/master/data/tlg2040/tlg004/tlg2040.tlg004.perseus-grc2.xml
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